Pledge of Allegiance

Dictionary of American History
COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. The Pledge of Allegiance developed as part of a promotional campaign in the 1890s by the editors of The Youth's Companion, a popular weekly magazine published in Boston. Its purpose was to encourage patriotic education by placing the flag in the public schools and standardizing a flag salute. The original version, called "The Youth's Companion Flag Pledge," was published on 8 September 1892 and read "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and ["to" added here the following month] the Republic for which it stands: one Nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." The Pledge was a collaboration between James P. Upham, a junior partner of the magazine's publishing company, and his assistant, Francis M. Bellamy, a Baptist minister whose socialist ideas had lost him his pulpit. Disagreement persists over who should be considered its author, but two research teams—one by the United States Flag Association in 1939 and another by the Library of Congress in 1957—gave Bellamy the honor. The widespread popularity of the Pledge began with its central place in the nationwide school ceremonies associated with the first Columbus Day celebration, held in conjunction with the dedication on 19 October 1892 of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, marking the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus's landing. National Flag Conferences in 1923 and 1924 agreed that the words "my flag" should be specified as "the flag of the United States" (and soon after "of America"). Congress eventually adopted the Pledge as part of an official flag code in 1942.

In 1935, members of the Jehovah's Witnesses began challenging regulations requiring compulsory recitation of the Pledge, insisting that the ceremony of allegiance contravened biblical injunctions opposing worship of a graven image. While the 1940 Gobitis case was unsuccessful before the U.S. Supreme Court, that body reversed its decision in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) when it ruled that citizens could not be forced to confess their loyalty. In 1953, the House of Representatives, at the urging of the Knights of Columbus, introduced a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge. President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported this revision and signed it into law on Flag Day, 14 June 1954. Dissenters (including a 2002 California court of appeals) argued that the change violated the First Amendment clause that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The Pledge has long been widely memorized by school children and plays a prominent role in naturalization ceremonies. Its thirty-one words read: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands—one nation, under God, indivisible—with liberty and justice for all."

Pledge of Allegiance

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Pledge of Allegiance, in full, Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, oath that proclaims loyalty to the United States. and its national symbol. It reads:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
According to the U.S. flag code, it should be recited while standing at attention with the right hand over the heart; military personnel must salute. The pledge first appeared, in a slightly different form, in a mass-circulation magazine for young people, The Youth's Companion, in the Sept. 8, 1892, issue. Authorship has been ascribed to Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), cousin of Edward Bellamy and a socialist, former Baptist minister, and magazine staff member. A month later the pledge was first used publicly in school ceremonies celebrating Columbus Day.

In 1924 the oath's wording was changed slightly (the original
"my flag"
became
"the flag of the United States of America"
). Officially recognized by the government in 1942, the pledge became compulsory in some public schools, but the following year the Supreme Court ruled (in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette) that recitation could not be required of any individual. It continues, however, to be mandatory or recommended in a majority of the states and is a daily fixture in most American classrooms. The final alteration to the pledge occurred in 1954 when, by a joint order of Congress, the words
"under God"
were inserted. The change is usually ascribed to a cold-war attempt at differentiating the United States from officially atheistic Communist countries. The addition caused little stir when it was enacted, but in 2002 opposition to it resulted in a federal appeals court ruling that the words are unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment's prohibition against government endorsement of religion. The Supreme Court subsequently overturned the verdict on procedural grounds.

See J. W. Baer, The Pledge of Allegiance: A Centennial History, 1892–1992 (1992).

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Pledge of Allegiance

Pledge of Allegiance (in the US) a solemn oath of loyalty to the United States, declaimed as part of flag-saluting ceremonies, composed by the American clergyman and editor Francis Bellamy (1856–1931).

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